A Course for Fostering
Research Skills
Shreepad Karmalkar
ProfessorElectrical Engineering Department
Presented at IIT Mumbai 4th December 2006
Knowing
Comprehension
Problem solving
Critical thinking
Creative thinking
• Thinking
• Problem finding
• Experimentation
• Modeling
• Time / stress management
Research Skills
• Technical communication
Oral
Written
Publishing / Patenting
Literature search • Professional ethics
READING MATERIAL FOR DISCUSSION
YOU AND YOUR RESEARCH
by Richard W. Hamming
Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar
7th March 1986
BOOKS TO READ
• E. M. Phillips and D. S. Pugh, “How to get a PhD -
a handbook for PhD students and their supervisors”,
Viva books Pvt Ltd, (price Rs. 130 after 20 % discount).
• G. L. Squires, “Practical physics”, Cambridge University
Press (price Rs. 155 after 20 % discount).
• Handbook of Science Communication, compiled by Antony
Wilson, Jane Gregory, Steve Miller, Shirley Earl, Overseas
Press India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, first edition 2005 (Price
Rs. 130).
Research and Scholarship
Degrees
• Bachelors: General education
• Masters: Possession of advanced knowledge
• Doctorate: License to teach and guide others
Research“Go back and search until we find – explore”
“An objective and systematic effort to gain new knowledge”
UG Education versus Research
• In research you do not get well-defined problems to
solve. It is your job to define the problem as well as to
solve it.
• A UG student’s learning is managed by his teachers.
A research scholar, on the other hand, is the manager of
his own learning; hence he must be an independent
thinker.
• Research education blurs the distinction between a
student and his mentor.
Research entails prolonged and arduous labour
and needs - breadth of knowledge
- persistence and concentration rather than brilliance
- doubt rather than overconfidence
Characteristics of Research
Characteristics of Research
Cox (1926), in his study of 301 geniuses, wrote:
“High but not the highest intelligence, combined
with the greatest degrees of persistence, will
achieve greater eminence than the highest degree
of intelligence with somewhat less persistence”.
Why Research ?
• Progress and invention are born of inquiry.
• While a king is respected in his own country, a
researcher is respected everywhere in the world
• Enhance carrier opportunities and earning.
• Service to society.
• Intellectual satisfaction of doing creative work.
• Not having any real aims and not knowing what to do.